Korean Drama Rating from October 16 to 22, 2017

Three unique dramas led the notable improvements in ratings last week. Revenge drama Avengers Social Club made history when it surpassed 5 % in just three episodes, and so did legal drama Witch’s Court which climbed to 12 % from 9 %. Meanwhile, supernatural thriller Black is poised to duplicate Voice‘s and Tunnel’s impressive records with its continuous increase in ratings up to 4 %.

Korean Drama Rating from October 16-22, 2017. All rating values are based on nationwide viewership data from Nielsen Korea.

Date

Network

Drama

Episode No. (/total)

Rating

Oct 16

KBS2

Witch's Court

3/16

9.1

Oct 16

MBC

20th Century Boy and Girl

5/32

3.2

Oct 16

MBC

20th Century Boy and Girl

6/32

3.5

Oct 16

SBS

Temperature of Love

17/40

6.8

Oct 16

SBS

Temperature of Love

18/40

7.9

Oct 16

tvN

Because This Is My First Life

3/16

2.292

Oct 17

KBS2

Witch's Court

4/16

12.3

Oct 17

MBC

20th Century Boy and Girl

7/32

3.7

Oct 17

MBC

20th Century Boy and Girl

8/32

4.3

Oct 17

tvN

Because This Is My First Life

4/16

3.841

Oct 18

KBS2

Mad Dog

3/16

6.9

Oct 18

MBC

Hospital Ship

29/32

8.3

Oct 18

MBC

Hospital Ship

30/32

8.6

Oct 18

SBS

While You Were Sleeping

13/32

8.6

Oct 18

SBS

While You Were Sleeping

14/32

10.0

Oct 18

tvN

Avengers Social Club

3/12

5.249

Oct 19

KBS2

Mad Dog

4/16

5.5

Oct 19

MBC

Hospital Ship

31/32

7.1

Oct 19

MBC

Hospital Ship

32/32

8.7

Oct 19

SBS

While You Were Sleeping

15/32

7.9

Oct 19

SBS

While You Were Sleeping

16/32

8.9

Oct 19

tvN

Avengers Social Club

4/12

5.054

Oct 20

JTBC

The Package

3/12

2.139

Oct 20

KBS2

Go Back Couple

3/16

5.2

Oct 21

JTBC

The Package

4/12

1.664

Oct 21

KBS2

Go Back Couple

4/16

4.8

Oct 21

OCN

Black

3/16

3.963

Oct 21

tvN

Revolutionary Love

3/16

2.762

Oct 22

OCN

Black

4/16

4.318

Oct 22

tvN

Revolutionary Love

4/16

3.796

Korean Drama Rating Highlights

1. Avengers Social Club surpasses 5 % and makes history. As far as viewership ratings are concerned, tvN has another hit series in Avengers Social Club. The revenge drama achieved 5.249 % last week, becoming the first ever tvN drama this year to surpass 5 % in just three episodes. This is really an amazing feat considering that about half of the series’ episode competes with the major broadcaster’s dramas such as Hospital Ship and While You Were Sleeping. Avengers Social Club starts airing at 9:30 pm while the rest over at the free-to-air channels begin at 10 pm, so it means about 30 remaining minutes of Avengers’ episode is aired while Hospital Ship, While You Were Sleeping, and Mad Dog are on-air. This presents a problem to some Korean viewers who want to watch Avengers and either of the free-to-air dramas during their original telecast. One has to make a choice—a choice that definitely affects TV ratings.

2. Witch’s Court overtakes Temperature of Love as highest-rated Monday-Tuesday drama. This drama is showing no sign of slowing down. Witch’s Court made a big leap last week as it posted 9.1 % on its third episode and gained 3.2 percentage points the next day to achieve a whopping 12.3 %. This big change can be partly attributed to the postponement of Temperature of Love’s Tuesday broadcast due to a KBO League playoff. KBS2 would be making another hit if the legal drama could sustain this double-digit record. See the newest ranking below and you can notice that it moved two places up from the previous ranking to occupy the second place.

3. Black pulls in more than 4 %. OCN is up to enjoy high viewership from its drama again as Black is showing very promising changes in ratings. Two weeks into its broadcast and it already reached 4 %, 4.318 % to be exact. This record somehow resembles that of Voice and Tunnel, so unless something goes wrong in the middle it can be expected that Black will be pulling off a successful broadcast with lots of 5-something percent.

4. Because This Is My First Life renews highest rating. From 2.292 % to 3.841 %, Because This Is My First Life made its biggest jump yet and if it can maintain this trend in the next weeks, the possibility of achieving 5 % is just a matter of time. Two rom-coms are currently airing on tvN (the other one is Revolutionary Love) and if they continue making decent ratings until the end of their broadcast, the cable network is up to make a notable record—all of its three dramas are enjoying above average viewership (is the slump finally over?)!

5. While You Were Sleeping maintains dominance on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The numbers would say this as a fact, so strictly speaking Hospital Ship is really done being an undefeatable competitor on the said time slot. However, the competition between the medical drama and While You Were Sleeping remains very tight if you ignore the slight difference in ratings. This is the reason why While You Were Sleeping could hardly achieve double-digit viewership. Although it managed to finally reach 10 % last week, sustaining the record would be a no easy task until Hospital Ship makes its exit next week.

6. 20th Century Boy and Girl sees consecutive increase in ratings. This MBC rom-com remains the lowest-rated ongoing free-to-air drama but it pulled off a notable record last week—from 3.2 to 3.5 to 3.7 to 4.3 %. It seems like it benefited as well from the absence of Temperature of Love in the competition on Tuesday, so whether it can sustain this increase in ratings this week is up in the air.

7. The Package records lowest rating.The Package continued to suffer from low viewership and fell down to its lowest record last week, at 1.664 %. If the drama won’t improve in the weeks to come, it will cause JTBC to lose its momentum in TV ratings. The cable network has been reaping decent audience shares from Strong Woman Do Bong Soon to Age of Youth 2, which is something that never happened before, and The Package seems unlikely to maintain that status quo. It would cause a gloomy reaction from the makers of the show, especially because it was completely pre-produced in France and the filming was completed in December last year.

Weekly Ranking

This ranking of ongoing dramas is based on the average nationwide ratings of the dramas’ episodes that aired until October 22, 2017.

Free-to-Air Dramas (dramas from KBS,MBC, and SBS)

Hospital Ship – 9.9 %

Witch’s Court – 9.4 %

Temperature of Love – 9.1 %

While You Were Sleeping – 8.3 %

Mad Dog – 5.7 %

Go Back Couple – 5.2 %

20th Century Boy and Girl – 3.7 %

Cable Dramas (dramas from JTBC, OCN, and tvN)

Avengers Social Club – 4.460 %

Black – 3.575 %

Revolutionary Love – 3.148 %

Because This Is My First Life – 2.701 %

The Package – 1.809 %

Charts*

*The use of the charts above for whatever purpose is allowed provided that the content using the charts links back to this post or to www.kdramapal.com.

Me? Just an ordinary lad with an extraordinary (says this something called 'stereotype') habit of watching Korean dramas. It started with action-filled City Hunter and the rest, as they say, is history.